While They Were Lost
by i-embrace-OCD
Summary: Short oneshot about Katara and Aang's activities in the swamp while they were separated from Toph and Sokka. Light Kataang.


**Author's Note:** For SifuBlindBandit's contest. Not my best, but it's something, and I kind of like it. It's light Kataang.

**Disclaimer:** Never did and never will own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

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_While They Were Lost_

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"Aang… Aang, are you okay?"

For a brief moment, the airbender was breathless. Then he managed to mumble, "I'm fine," though he didn't quite have as much faith in these words as he should have.

"Are you sure?" he heard Katara ask, her voice painfully uncertain. He then realized that he had yet to open his eyes; he cautiously did so and, to his surprise, Appa was nowhere in sight.

"Where's Appa?" he asked, hardly giving a second thought to the painful burning sensation around his arms where they were caught by the vines in their landing.

Katara was bending a little water from the pouch at her waist. She completely ignored the disgusting swamp water gathered around her ankles and approached Aang, eyeing the redness in his arms. "I'm not sure… right after Sokka and Toph fell, Appa swerved really badly and we both fell, too. Don't you remember?" She paused. "And do you need me to heal anything? Those vines were rough on you."

Aang shook his head. "I'm a little dazed… I don't _remember _falling out of Appa. I'm okay, though." He made an effort to stand; the feet slipped in the mud and he fell back down, his face contorting into a painful grimace. "Okay, maybe I'm not. I'll just call Appa to come pick us up…"

Aang's fingers ventured up to his neck, but they were not rewarded. "Your whistle's gone," Katara said, sounding both a little surprised and a little upset at the same time.

"Not good," Aang said, his voice adopting a worried edge. "This is _not _good. I mean, we probably won't have that much trouble finding him… it just, you know, depends... I really need to find that whistle." The airbender ran his hands through the surrounding water, hands searching but coming up empty. He proceeded to successfully stand up and bend the water in an effort to expose his lost treasure, but without warning the water fell back to the swamp's bottom without Aang's guidance.

"Aang," Katara said quietly, "we're not alone."

Suddenly the airbender became painfully aware of the loose fog that shielded them from view. He could tell that they weren't the only two around – someone had manipulated the water from his grasp – but whether or not the visitor was friendly, he didn't know.

"Who's there?" he asked. He let loose a small gust of wind in a vain attempt to disperse the fog, but the dense air refused to be affected. Aang could still feel the presence of another – and another, and another…

"We're surrounded!" Katara exclaimed. Her bending water was already poised between her hands, ready for the first strike.

Then the fog slowly rolled away, revealing what appeared to be a hunting party consisting of swamp natives – and they did not look very friendly.

A rather large, portly one barked an order in a language that neither Aang nor Katara recognized. Three men came at them, obviously intending to skewer them with their spears, or worse.

Katara immediately shifted into action. She shot icicles in the general direction of several men, two of which were pinned to a tree and another who was so surprised by the attack that he immediately turned and ran in the opposite direction. Katara then created a fairly large waterwhip and immediately engaged in battle with three more, hoping to occupy them so that they didn't fight Aang. He obviously suffered painful injuries during their fall, and she didn't want those injuries to be aggravated into something worse.

Aang was a bit slower, but he was doing just as well. He was using waterbending as well because the element was in heavy abundance; several haphazard fluid tendrils had sprouted from the gathering of water near his feet, and he was using the technique to fend off his four attackers. He could not see the sense in fighting – he had done nothing to them! They had not been enemies before the order of attack was issued; perhaps they took heed of nothing else besides such commands.

The man who had barked the orders in the first place passed the time by standing on the sidelines and observing; he was particularly interested in Katara, though this fact went unnoticed by the fighting duo and his own hunting party. A female was engaging in combat, and not only that, but she was just as skilled and familiar with the arts of waterbending as her male companion. It was not merely uncommon in his swamp; it was unheard of!

Quite suddenly Katara's primary opponent, who was also brandishing a waterwhip, made the water tighten around her abdomen in an incredibly tight grip. She was held fast by a rope made of her very own element, and, because it compressed her arms to her sides, she could do nothing about it.

Aang turned to her and, in the split second it took to process her state, another native attacked him in the same fashion. Within moments both the waterbender and Avatar were incapacitated. The leader of the hunting party approached them with a hungering glint in his eyes that Aang thought rather discomfiting.

The man reached down and grabbed Katara's collar; he yanked her up in a most certainly painful fashion. A flame flared behind Aang's eyes and he growled, in the most menacing voice he'd been able to muster in quite some time, "Don't hurt her!"

Her captor turned toward the Avatar, an eyebrow raised and a rather skeptical look dominating his face. He turned his steady gaze to one of the fighters and grunted something in that same strange language then turned and marched a struggling Katara forward, the man maintaining the waterwhip following close behind.

Aang was yanked up in a similar fashion and followed suit.

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After a good half hour of being jostled around by strangers, Katara and Aang found themselves in some sort of strange encampment. The waterwhips that had bound them both were quickly replaced by vines; the two were fastened to a tree, which wasn't exactly the best idea.

As soon as their captors had turned their backs, Katara froze the vines binding their hands and Aang broke them. They had the opportunity to escape, but all of a sudden, from the corner of his eye, Aang saw it.

His bison whistle, and it was being held by one of _them._

He turned in the direction of the man who was holding his possession; no one had yet taken notice of them. Katara put a hand on Aang's shoulder – she thought it best to slip away unnoticed – but the motion went unheeded.

Aang dashed forward.

Katara could hardly grasp what was happening because all of a sudden, she was in Aang's arms, and he was blowing the whistle, and they were moving forward as fast as Aang's legs could carry the two. The airbender finally stopped blowing and found it in himself to, with the assistance of airbending, propel both of them forward until they were surely out of range of the swamp natives.

After putting Katara down, Aang blew the whistle again. In moments he felt Appa's great mass flying above him – and he moved to a nearby clearing where the trees didn't grow nearly so thick, and the air bison landed comfortably. The ever-chattering Momo was perched atop his companion's head.

"Good to see you, buddy," Aang said, approaching Appa and patting him affectionately. "C'mon… we've got to go find Sokka and Toph. They're probably worried sick, or hurt, or…" The airbender suddenly felt ashamed for the lack of concern he'd so far shown for their safety. "I hope they're all right."

"I'm sure they are," Katara encouraged. For a moment there was a comfortable silence, and then she said, "That was some pretty nice running back there. Thanks for getting us out of that."

"Hey… it's what I'm here for." Aang smiled and shrugged, and, after lending her a hand to board Appa, the two began the search for their friends – while being particularly careful to not stray quite so close to the swamp natives' encampment.

Quite soon, the group was reunited.


End file.
